Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams The Vow tops the US box office

Takes home a tidy $41m

Eight years after her rain-soaked smooches with Ryan Gosling in The Notebook caused audiences to swoon, Rachel McAdams has done it again with romantic drama The Vow .

The amnesia-tinged romance landed first place at the US box office this weekend, nabbing itself a not inconsiderable $41m. That’s a figure that should spare Notebook (which had an opening haul of $13m) few blushes.

Coming up right behind The Vow was Denzel Washington’s actioner Safe House , which made an impressive $39m in its first weekend, easily trumping nearest competition Journey 2 , which only managed $27m.

George Lucas should be celebrating, too, as the 3D re-release of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace opened in fourth place with a respectable $23m. Not the number one spot Lucas was surely hoping for, but not bad considering most people already own it on DVD.

Closing out the top five was microbudget sci-fi Chronicle , which added $12m to its honey pot, giving it a total of $40m. Given it was made for just $15m, we should probably expect a sequel to get a green light soon.